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Australian Open: Canada’s Milos Raonic rolls into third round

No. 13 seed Milos Raonic defeated Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday.

Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., hits a return to Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic during their second-round match at the Australian Open on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. (Aaron Favila / The Associated Press)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hits a return to Greece's Eleni Daniilidou during their second-round match at the Australian Open on Thursday, Jan.17, 2013. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

By Star wire services

Thu., Jan. 17, 2013

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Canada’s Milos Raonic defeated Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the third round of the Australian Open.

The 13th seed now stands one victory away from duplicating his best showing at a grand slam after playing four rounds at the U.S. Open last autumn and in Melbourne in 2011.

Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., will face off against 17th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber on Sunday after the German advanced with a 6-2, 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Israeli Amir Weintraub.

He clinched the victory just before temperatures rose to the day’s high of 39 Celsius, the hottest day of the event so far.

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Raonic, ranked 15th in the world, had never faced Rosol before. The Czech is known for eliminating Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon last June in the upset of the season.

Raonic converted on five of his eight break chances in the rout on an outside court. He broke three times in the second set and was equally untroubled as he rolled to the win.

Earlier, Serena Williams walked on court cautiously and tried to keep the points short to avoid irritating her injured right ankle as she advanced to the third round.

Summoning all the experience she’s gained winning 15 major championships, including the last two in succession, Williams lifted her tempo when she absolutely had to — winning an 18-minute game to open the second set, finally cashing in on her fourth break point. Nineteen minutes later, she finished off a 6-2, 6-0 win Thursday over No. 112-ranked Garine Muguruza of Spain.

Apart from a swollen lip, after hitting herself in the face with her racquet in the sixth game, the injury status wasn’t bad.

“It feels better,” Williams said of her ankle. Before the match, “I was just doing everything you can do — icing to massage. I woke up this morning and thought . . . ‘Oh my God, it feels good.’

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

Despite the injury concerns, Williams she said she’d be playing doubles later with her sister Venus, and will play her next singles match against Japan’s Ayumi Morita on Saturday.

With temperatures later reaching 39 C, Azarenka didn’t want to be out in the heat.

“I felt like I’m back into the competitive mode,” she said. “I was really focused — that was for sure the best part of the game for me.”

The No. 94-ranked Daniilidou only won 10 points in the first set and, despite having triple break point in the fourth game of the second, couldn’t win a game in the second set.

Top-ranked Azarenka had her friend, musician RedFoo, in the stands watching and signing autographs, and said she went onto the court listening to a “great mix of disco music and a little bit of new music. I really start to like it a lot — there’s no words really.”

The 23-year-old Belarusian won her first Grand Slam title here last year, during a 26-match winning streak to start the season.

“It’s pretty difficult to duplicate something like that,” she said. “All I can do is try.”

She didn’t win another major in 2012, despite being close to victory in the U.S. Open final against Serena Williams, but held the No. 1 ranking for most of the season.

Also advancing to the third round were No. 14 Maria Kirilenko, who beat China’s Peng Shuai 7-5, 6-2; No. 16 Roberta Vinci, a 6-3 6-2 winner over Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan; and Russia’s Elena Vesnina, who beat No. 21-seeded Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 6-4, 6-2.

Azarenka and Serena Williams’ lopsided wins came a day after No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova, the woman she beat in the Australian final last year, recorded her second 6-0, 6-0 win of the tournament.

The No. 2-ranked Sharapova overwhelmed Japan’s Misaki Doi in 47 minutes Wednesday, even less time than she’d needed to beat fellow Russian Olga Puchkova two days earlier in her first competitive match of 2013.

Now the first woman to post back-to-back 6-0, 6-0 wins at a Grand Slam since 1985, Sharapova now plays seven-time major winner Venus Williams in the third round.

“It’s not really the statistic I want to be known for,” Sharapova said. “I want to be known for winning Grand Slams.”

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